ANDREW LINCOLN: Our weather is wilder...
..fiercer...
..more unpredictable...
..than ever before.
REPORTER: Rare red weather warnings
meaning there's a potential danger to life.
Such weather is more frequent and intense.
I think we had this conversation in our newsroom, you know,
when they were evacuating all the people.
What about the animals?
For the first time...
..we see the planet's most extreme weather...
..through their eyes.
When nature turns against them...
..they're not just enduring...
..they are fighting back...
..in remarkable ways.
The bigger the storm...
..the greater the heroes.
GROWLS
TRUMPETS
These animals are... a force of nature.
REPORTER: This is just total devastation.
I've never seen anything like it.
The fire chief is predicting the most dangerous bushfire week
this nation has ever seen.
AUTOMATED VOICE: You are in danger
and need to act immediately to survive.
The safest option is to take shelter indoors immediately.
It is too late to leave.
The ancient eucalyptus forests of Eastern Australia...
..home to two thirds of the world's most iconic
and quirky marsupials...
..including the wombat.
Weighing as much as a German shepherd...
..like all marsupials, she carries her baby in a pouch.
At seven months old, her joey is developing a taste for grass.
By ten months old, he's found his legs.
And he's becoming quite a handful.
CHIRPING
Like every long-suffering mother,
she makes the most of her brief breaks.
Close to weaning, the youngster craves fresh grass more and more.
But today, it's harder to come by...
..tempting him...
..deeper into the forest.
In the driest year in recorded history...
..the forest has become a tinderbox.
The naive youngster has never experienced fire before.
He needs to get back to mum...
..fast.
There have always been fires in the Australian bush.
But not on this scale.
The young wombat's forest is about to be consumed.
Every second counts.
Today's wildfires may be unprecedented...
..but the scale of the underlying drought is even bigger...
..and now affects a third of the entire world's land surface.
REPORTER: In the last two years,
Earth has endured some of the most widespread
and destructive droughts ever recorded.
The worst drought seen in more than 50 years.
It's the longest dry spell on record.
After more than a year without rain.
Nowhere has been hit harder than Africa.
The drought in Zambia has reached crisis levels.
As food sources disappear,
animals are driven closer to towns and villages
and into deadly conflict with people.
Like all leopards, this female leads a solitary life.
But once every few years, she finds a mate.
At 12 years old, this could be her last chance to have cubs.
After a brief affair...
..she's pregnant.
If she's to successfully give birth, she must keep well fed.
But the drought has ravaged her world.
A small grove...
..by a dried riverbed...
..is the only place where prey remains.
Everyone is on the lookout for predators.
GROANING AND GRUNTING
It's never been harder to launch an ambush.
To catch an impala...
..she needs to get within just a few metres.
MONKEY CALLS Busted.
One on one, a leopard can kill a baboon.
But facing the whole troop...
she is now the one in danger.
BABOONS SCREECH
Trapped and left hungry...
..it's not just her pregnancy at stake.
It's her life.
ANDREW LINCOLN: Drier than the African savannah...
..deserts are getting hotter and expanding.
Life here is now facing hell on earth.
REPORTER: As you add more heat, storms get stronger,
they more rapidly intensify.
Apocalyptic dust storm.
We're getting hit hard with the wind.
It is really picking up here.
Here in the Sonoran Desert...
..ground temperatures have hit a new world record.
80.8C.
Even desert specialists like cacti wither.
Animals caught out in the midday sun can be cooked alive.
But a canny few retreat underground.
At five years old...
this veteran kangaroo rat has never faced heat like this before.
Even a metre down, it's a sweltering 38C.
Dehydration can be a killer.
But he bides his time.
At night, it's ten degrees cooler...
..and the desert comes alive.
He's not after a drink.
He may never drink a drop of water in his life.
Getting all the water he needs...
..from grass seeds.
But they're harder to find than ever.
To make matters worse...
..warmer nights...
..mean more cold-blooded predators are on the prowl.
This may be his last supper.
SQUEAKS
Saved by his kangaroo springs...
..he can finally eat in peace.
But with a new dawn comes a new danger.
Record-breaking heat...
..unleashes nature's fury.
As our planet heats up, it burns.
In 2024 alone,
wildfires burned an area bigger than India.
But nowhere are they more destructive
than in Eastern Australia.
REPORTER: Just outside Sydney, conditions are so dangerous,
the fires have been rated catastrophic.
Literally off the scale of fire danger.
We are in the midst of a bushfire crisis tonight.
The young wombat has lost his mum.
And there's just minutes to escape the flames.
A record fuel load...
..fanned by powerful winds...
..transforms a regular bushfire into a firestorm...
..with flames towering over 70 metres high.
Koalas instinctively climb to the treetops.
But today, there's no escaping the flames.
Running is equally futile.
This fire is faster than an Olympic sprinter.
For the young wombat, all hope appears lost...
..until he simply vanishes.
An ancient burrow...
..more than 20 metres long.
Dug out by generations of wombats.
In this age of the mega fire,
they've become a lifeline for Australia's wildlife.
Nearly 50 species are known to seek refuge in wombat burrows.
But without his mum, food or water, he won't last more than a week.
All he can do is wait for the flames to pass.
REPORTER: Zambia has experienced the worst drought since records began.
9.8 million of our people have been adversely affected.
We declare the national disaster.
ANDREW LINCOLN: The leopard is now a month into her pregnancy.
And there's no end to the drought.
The surrounding plains have become virtually uninhabitable.
More and more animals seek refuge in the shelter of the forest...
..and with them, predators.
Three times the size of a leopard...
..a lioness will kill her on sight.
Her life has just got tougher.
Nightfall brings welcome cover.
And not just for the leopard, as revealed by a thermal camera.
Her incredible night vision, six times better than ours,
now gives her the edge over her prey.
Sensing danger, the impalas group together for safety.
But she has company.
The lioness is back.
Hunger now drives her to desperate measures.
Wild animals instinctively avoid humans.
But extreme drought changes the rules.
A wise decision.
Attacks on humans rarely go unpunished.
But if she's to survive the coming weeks and complete her pregnancy...
..she'll have to find a new hunting strategy.
The kangaroo rat's urgent need for life-giving seeds
has forced him to venture out before sundown...
..exposing him to new dangers.
Over 60 miles wide...
..and over a mile high...
..a sandstorm.
SQUEAKS
Everything is buried...
..but not necessarily dead.
He may have survived the storm,
but his grass seeds have been scattered far and wide.
To eat, he must venture...
..into hostile territory.
Precious seeds.
But they're already spoken for...
..and this young buck isn't about to share.
It's youth versus experience...
..in a game of kangaroo rat kung fu.
SQUEAKING
Beaten...
..and without seeds...
..the old male won't last long.
But in this desert, his fortunes can change in a heartbeat.
ANDREW LINCOLN: As summer in the desert reaches its peak...
..the extreme heat doesn't just cause sandstorms.
It triggers thunderstorms.
Although rain is becoming increasingly rare here...
..when it does fall...
..it's a deluge...
..sparking a once-in-a-decade miracle.
Over the next two weeks, the desert is transformed.
A superbloom of flowers.
Most kangaroo rats will never experience bounty like this.
But this moment is fleeting.
As deserts continue to heat up...
..even a supremely adapted animal like him
faces an uncertain future.
This experienced leopard
has just a month left of her pregnancy...
..but her chances of a successful birth are lowering by the day.
Midday temperatures now exceed 45C.
It's too hot for the chase.
Putting predators...
..out of action.
And too hot for the baboons to stand guard.
Even the impalas are forced into the shade.
This could be her time.
At last, she can approach unnoticed.
CHEETAH SNARLS
IMPALA BLEATS
But in the confines of the forest...
..her enemy is never out of earshot.
Her willingness to hunt in the heat of the day...
..has paid off.
And three months later...
she's rewarded with two healthy cubs.
While they will face future hardship...
..of all Africa's big cats, it's the leopard,
with all her resilience and adaptability...
..that has the greatest chance of surviving the enduring drought.
Days have passed since the inferno...
..leaving no living creature in sight.
The young wombat may have survived the flames...
..but his problems have only just begun.
There's no sign of his mum.
No green vegetation.
No food.
There's nothing but burnt wood and ash.
Today, a single fire may incinerate an area
six times the size of London.
On this scale, starvation kills more than the fire itself.
Alone, without food or water...
..he will die in a matter of days.
But he is not alone.
Many have come forward...
..volunteers from all walks of life.
The world is warming so fast...
..animals everywhere are struggling to adapt.
Some will endure.
But for so many...
..we are their only hope.